Six days after the fighting at Gettysburg ended, the first battlefield reports appeared in The Easton Sentinel under the headline "Cheering News" and they proclaimed a "glorious victory" for Union forces under Gen. George Meade.

Tucked underneath the accolades came sobering news on Northampton County's own 153rd Pennsylvania Infantry. Recognizing that "a most intense anxiety prevails throughout the county" to learn what happened to the regiment, the Sentinel published a list of nine men — four captains and five lieutenants.

Killed was "Capt. Harrison Young, Moorsburg," in what the Sentinel acknowledged was an "imperfect list" of casualties suffered at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863. Of the rest, one was missing and six were wounded. And perhaps most agonizing for family and friends was the confusion over the exact identity of the last officer on the list — "Lieut. Arther (likely Capt. Oerter)" — and his unknown fate.

The Sentinel said it received the casualty list from a telegraph on "Friday last," which would have been July 3, the final day of fighting.

Even more chilling for those waiting for news of loved ones and the fortunes of the regiment was a letter from "young Hayden of this Borough," who reported he and about 80 others were captured during the fighting on Barlow's Knoll just north of Gettysburg, and he does "not give even a guess at the loss the regiment sustained."